Summer Camp Chaos

I realize that it’s wintertime. In our neck of the woods, summer camp planning happens in January. You better have your top choices booked by early February or you may never get in.

Luckily, we live in an area with a ton of summer camp options for the kids. There are so many cool options that I wish I could go too! There are weeks dedicated to fun activities like building robots, engineering lightsabers, cooking competitions, creating stop-motion videos, and visiting waterparks.

January is dedicated to reviewing the available options and deciding how much I’m willing to spend and how far I’m willing to drive. I create a simple spreadsheet to track it all. The weeks of summer break are across the top and each row is dedicated to a different location/provider. I fill the cells with options.

I then sit down with the kid(s) to see what they are most interested in. They have the “tough” choices, like deciding between a week of fishing vs. art. #firstworldproblems

Then, the best part happens. The parents in my neighborhood sit down together and figure out where we have overlap and plan carpool weeks. It is AWESOME! I’m so thankful to have parents to team up with.

Some of these camps fill up so quickly that we have to sign up as soon as registration begins. I have about a million reminders set on my phone and in our Cozi calendar for the popular camps so I can get in the week we want.

The best part of about the chaos of summer camp planning is that it forces us to plan our summer early. If we want to take time off for vacation, then we need to at least pick the week early. We then plan for the grandparents. My husband’s parents and mine are amazing and volunteer to host the kids for a week at their houses for another whole set of family-fun and adventure.